http://www.redhatconfig.com/
http://www.redhatconfig.com/
As nice as tmpfs is the
risk is not worth it unfortunately. I can’t have any decrypted data wriiten to
physical disk.
Regards
From:
rhelv5-list-bounces@redhat.com [mailto:rhelv5-list-bounces@redhat.com] On Behalf Of Zavodsky, Daniel (GE
Money)
Sent: 12 March 2008
10:55
To: Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 5 (Tikanga) discussion mailing-list
Subject: RE: [rhelv5-list] ramdisk vs tmpfs
in terms of security
I meant that even a
full tmpfs may be swapped out if you are not accessing the files and other
programs need the memory. However, if you create some files there, do operations
on them and then immediately delete them, a swap out should not occur at the
time you are using the tmpfs.
Best
regards,
Daniel
From:
rhelv5-list-bounces@redhat.com [mailto:rhelv5-list-bounces@redhat.com] On Behalf Of
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 11:35
AM
To: Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 (Tikanga) discussion mailing-list
Subject: RE: [rhelv5-list] ramdisk vs tmpfs
in terms of security
That is a good point.
However if there are no files on the tmpfs partition at the time of swap out,
then this should not be a problem I believe.
Regards
From:
rhelv5-list-bounces@redhat.com [mailto:rhelv5-list-bounces@redhat.com] On Behalf Of Zavodsky, Daniel (GE
Money)
Sent: 12 March 2008
10:08
To: Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 5 (Tikanga) discussion mailing-list
Subject: RE: [rhelv5-list] ramdisk vs tmpfs
in terms of security
Hello,
Be careful,
tmpfs *may* be swapped out at a later time if you are not using it actively
and other programs need the memory.
Thus, always use
encrypted swap if you want to be on the safe side.
Best
regards,
Daniel
From:
rhelv5-list-bounces@redhat.com [mailto:rhelv5-list-bounces@redhat.com] On Behalf Of
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:58
AM
To: Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 (Tikanga) discussion mailing-list
Subject: [rhelv5-list] ramdisk vs tmpfs in
terms of security
Hi
Can anyone comment of the security
concerns of tmpfs vs ramdisk if used as scratch space to decrypt/encrypt
data?
According to my understanding tmpfs
should be just as safe as ramdisk as long as you limit the size to be smaller
than the actual memory available. My only concern is what would happen if your
memory is full and you then mount a new tmpfs. Will it be written to disk in
swap space, that at least is what I understand would happen, which would not be
great. But if you assign the tmpfs at boot time then there should not be any
problem unless you grow beyond the intial size.
Regards